28 |FLIGHTPATH
heard numerous eyewitness testimonies,
oneofwhichcamefromanItalianfisher-
man, Guidolotti Romualdo, who stated:
“I was resting on the bank of the lake
andwaseatingwhilewatchingthesky.I
sawanaeroplaneperformaturnand
thenbegintodescendvertically.Itspun
around several times, and then nose-
divedintothelake.Iwokemytwocom-
panions,collectedupalltheropesthatwe
hadintomyboat,andsetofftowardsthe
wreck. It was about 1,500 metres[a mile]
from the bank. When we arrived four sea-
planes had already landed, and someone
tiedourropestothewreckage,whichwe
begantotow,but,afteraround200me-
tres,[600 feet]thewrecksunkinabout35-
40 metres[113–140feet]of water. We held
ontotheropeuntilamotorlaunchar-
rived,andwehandedtheropetoitscrew,
returningtothebank.Ineversawthepi-
lot of the aircraft, and I never saw him
By mid-July a total of eleven
American pilots had qualiied.
leavetheaircraftafterithadfalleninto
the water ...”Despite searches the following
daybyadiver,theunfortunateaviator’s
bodywasneverfound,andthecommission
of inquiry found “death in service from acci-
dentalcauses”.Themostprobablehypothe-
sisisthattheaircraftcrashedduetolossof
controlafterenteringcloud.Thecommunity
in Bolsena, gathering around the American
contingent which had almost become a part
of the small city, chose to remember the sac-
rificeoftheyoungpilotbynamingtheroad
thatlinkedthetowntothebaseafterhim.
Meanwhile, activity at Bolsena continued
andbymid-JulyatotalofelevenAmerican
pilotshadqualified,fromthe49studentsat-
tending, while another 26 Americans ar-
rivedfromParison24August.Thelatter,
however, did not complete their course, as
the Armistice occurred before their final
exams, despite having finished their theory
course and a part of the flying syllabus.Bolsenasaw134studentspassthroughits
gates, 73 of whom passed out as pilots, flying
5,540flightsover2,216hours.Someofthese
pilots remained in Italy, assigned to the
American Flight at Porto Corsini, while the
remainderwerepostedtoFranceandthe
variousU.S.NavyunitsfightingontheWest-
ern Front. Those pilots posted to the flight
atPortoCorsiniwasgivenadditionalspecial-
isedtraining,toaddresstheparticularlynar-
rowtake-offchannelatthebasenearRaven-
na,soamockupwasmadeonthesurfaceof
theLakewithbuoyssetoutreplicatingthe
dimensions of the Candiano channel at the
Porto Corsini base, for take-off and landing.
TheAmericanflightatPortoCorsinipassed
outtwelvepilots(threeofficersandnine
NCOs) destined to operate as bomber pilots
and another twelve (ten officer pilots and two
NCOs) posted to fly fighters.
Although only operating briefly, by the
ArmisticetheBolsenaSchoolhadacquired
79 flying boats: 45 FBA; seven Macchi L.3;
thirteenMacchiM5;oneMacchiM.8;eight
SiaiS8andfiveISVA.Theendofthewar
resulted in the closure of the school, and the
startoftherepatriationoftheAmerican
contingent from January 1919, followed by
the disbandment of the station by theRegia
Marina,completedbythetransferbackto
private hands of the land area and infra-
structure by 1921.